The last couple of days have been classic Keatsian. It is only just beginning to get light when I do the early morning round tending to the livestock and it is distinctly cooler first thing. The leaves still cling on and are only just beginning to fall, but we have had no strong winds yet, nor frosts, to send them on their way. The morning dew lingers depending on whether the sun comes out later in the day. The season of wellington boots.
Some regular Autumn jobs have been accomplished: sorting the sheep and putting in the tup; confining the poultry (surely now a regular task); trimming the boundary hedge; tidying the vegetable beds ready for their Winter compost blanket; starting off some Winter crops in the greenhouse; much late harvesting and preserving. There is lots more to do but without the sense of Spring and Summer-time urgency.
Yesterday I picked all of the remaining Bramley apples and also the Blenheim Orange. The latter is quite a large tree so this involved standing on tip toes on the top of a step ladder to reach the not so low hanging fruit. There was a rather large rosy apple high up where it had been exposed to the sunshine, but too far out of reach to pick. This morning it was on the ground having dropped of its own accord. Bruised, alas, but large enough to still make use of.
Anchors amidst the turbulence.
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| Rosa rugosa hips in a nearby trackway |
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